‘Pipeline vandalism threatens Gas Master Plan’

The various acts of vandalism being carried out on the gas pipeline infrastructure across the country may derail the goal of the national Gas Master Plan, the Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. David Ige has said.

He said the activities of vandals, which have been on the increase lately, threatens the success of the Gas Master Plan, especially gas supply across the country.

While speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, he said vandals have helped in destroying many laudable programmes initiated by the government to make wheeling of gas from producers to users, especially power companies possible.

He said: “The Trans Forcados gas pipeline’s vandalism is almost every week now, and it has been going on for some time. In fact, from the 1st January till February this year, the pipeline has been vandalised several times, and each time we have to fix the pipelines, we spend days on it.

“The pipeline has been vandalised consistently. What happened is that people go there and drill holes in multiple points on the pipe; in most cases, they kill the security operatives that have come to intervene. This is how gruesome it has become.”

He said the implication of the activities of the vandals is clear. “It is a major outreach. It evacuates most of the crude oil from our production facilities at Oben, Sapele, Utorogu, and so on through Forcados, which is the main export terminal,” he said, adding that pipeline vandalism is an albatross which NNPC is contending with.

The Federal Government introduced the Gas Master Plan, to maximise the production and the usage of gas, regarded as a major raw material for power firms, fertiliser, and petrochemical companies, among others.